When Fairfax County approved the new Master Plan for Reston land use in 2014, I was among those pleased that key elements of Mr. Simon’s founding vision were maintained. Among them was the concept of village centers, already an endangered species as a result of redevelopments. The Master Plan, like Simon, envisions village centers as neighborhood gathering places with a plaza and a mix of uses including retail and services to draw people after work hours. Gathering places should be well connected to neighborhoods for easy pedestrian access.
The Lake Anne redevelopment plan abandoned last month was a good example of the right way to redevelop and revitalize a village center. I had hoped the emerging plan for nearby Tall Oaks might also be faithful to the concept, albeit on a smaller scale. But, the Tall Oaks plan revealed last year by new owner and developer Jefferson Apartments Group (JAG) is a far cry from the village center concept. In fact, the first iteration eliminated retail and services altogether and offered no real community gathering place. Instead, it would have been purely residential, chock-a-block 156 mid-rise condos and four-story townhouses organized in the manner of a fortress, more foreboding than welcoming to surrounding neighbors including the assisted living residents across the parking lot.
Many residents of neighboring clusters along North Shore Drive have made known their unhappiness with the proposal. Concerned citizens like Sherri Hebert, President of Bentana Woods Cluster, are standing up for the Tall Oaks community. These residents have in fact surveyed the neighborhood for comments and even suggested alternative designs. Residents like Ms. Hebert have arranged and held several meetings with developer representatives. They have attended Reston Association, Reston Planning and Zoning Committee and RA Design Review Board meetings to hear and respond to presentations by JAG. To date, their efforts have generated little feedback and very minor modification of JAG proposal. Originally allowing zero retail or services, JAG now proposes minor retail--less even than now exists. It calls for no convenience stores, no pharmacy and no restaurants to serve residents, the assisted living neighbors and the community.
The issue seems to boil down to this. The neighbors are asking for a modest village center a la the original vision and as foreseen in the Master Plan. That is, a village center with “retail, gathering and open space inviting for the entire community,” and a design that fits with the Tall Oaks area and connects to the assisted living building. In addition, Tall Oaks residents suggest a couple of changes that should have been made decades ago to improve the village center’s functioning, specifically in/out access and visibility from Wiehle Avenue. As it is and has been, many visitors to Reston drive down Wiehle right past Tall Oaks without knowing it’s there. In addition to being eminently reasonable, the suggestions of those most affected are very consistent with the Reston Master Plan.
To date, the Tall Oaks area residents are getting little response, much less support, from Reston Association which was ready to give prime Reston common land to the Lake Anne Village Center for its redevelopment. The RA Design Review Board has focused on building design but not village center content. The Reston Planning and Zoning Committee has offered constructive comments peripheral to the issues noted above.
If the Tall Oaks community is to get support for redevelopment consistent with Simon’s vision and the Master Plan, it will have to come from the Fairfax County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. Tall Oaks area residents are organized and have leadership to carry this battle to them—with our support!
For more, see Terry Maynard’s superb analysis of JAG proposal at: http://reston2020.blogspot.com/2015/09/jags-redevelopment-plan-calls-end.html